Asuka, My Love
by The Silent One1
Summary: What happens when Shinji helps Asuka? Angels and Mayhem galore!
1. Default Chapter

An Evangelion Fanfic written by:  
  
Phionex of the Fallen  
  
All characters are owned by (insert owners name here) and not by (insert fanfic authors Psuedonym here). All original storylines for the series are not owned by said author and he has made up this story you are about to read himself. Don't sue me, were not worthy. (Note: Creators of Waynes World please do not sue me either.)  
  
Asuka, My Love.  
  
"NO, NO DON'T LOOK INTO MY MIIIIIIINNNNNNNNDDDDDD!"  
  
Shinji gripped the handles inside Eva Unit 01's entry plug until he felt sure that his knuckels were white from the force he exerted.  
  
"FATHER! LET ME GO UP AND FIGHT!" He pleded with the remorseless man who sired him.  
  
"No, apparently this angel has the ability to contaminate a pilots mind. We cannot risk exposing Unit 01."  
  
"And what about Asuka?" Misato Katsuragi asked from lower down on the command bridge.  
  
"Send Rei to retrieve the Lance."  
  
"A spear? What the hell is a spear going to do to help Asuka." Shinjis thoughts echoed wildly in his mind, he had to protect Asuka, because even though he never showed it to anyone, even her; he cared and dare say loved the firey girl more than anything else in the world. He dropped his head and repeated his litany once more in his mind. He needed it now more than ever to help gather his meager amount of courage and strength.  
  
"I musn't run away. I musn't run away. I MUSN'T RUN AWAY!!......................................................I won't...I will not run away when Asuka needs me the most." Shinji opened his eyes and stared at his guardian and friend for the past four months of his life. Out of all the people gathered on that bridge, she was the one who deserved to hear him once more before he left.  
  
"Misato."  
  
The sudden calmness of Shinji's voice caused everyone on the bustling command bridge to stop their frantic efforts and stare at the steely eyed boy who carried the weight of humanity on his shoulders more than once.  
  
"Y...yes, Shinji?"  
  
"Goodbye, my friend. I will miss you. Tell Asuka...tell her that I love her." With that, the signel cut off and Eva Unit 01 activated within its steel prison.  
  
Asuka curled herself up within the entry plug, she had tried to block the intrusive probes into her past and memories; but she couldn't stop the attack. She felt violated, filthy, unclean and soiled.  
  
"...help me...please, Kaji help me..." Silent tears rolled off her cheek and landed in her lap, slowly diluted by the LCL that filled her lungs and the entry plug. She didn't know what was left for her to do...except wait for death. But death did not come; Eva 01, however, did. With a crash and the feeling of having a dagger pulled out of her temple, Asuka looked up to find herself out of the horrible beam of light and in the soft rain coming from the gray clouds above. She cryed harder when she saw the figure that now occupied her place in that light, the light of a vengeful God...Shinji stood there, bathed in that soft light within the cold outer shell of Evangelion Unit 01.  
  
"Sh--Shinji...you came...came to s-save me." Several more tears rolled from her eyes as she stared at the motionless from of the one she silently loved. Then without warning, the light dissapeared from the sky, leaving Unit 01 dark and menacing in the rain that poured down on it from above. Her systems flared to life, and Misato's face and voice appeared in one of her communication lines.  
  
"...Asuka!...Asuka! You're alive, thank God! Are you alright?"  
  
"I-I'm fine...What about Shinji? What happened to him and the angel?" She asked, a faint glimmer of regret and concern appearing in her eyes. Much to Misatos regret, she saw these glimmers and was forced to cast her eyes and head down.  
  
"Misato! What...happened to him?"  
  
"He's gone. Everything, him...and even his plugsuit. Ritsuko says that the analisis of the LCL reads negative...I'm so sorry Asuka."  
  
Fresh tears of sadness and regret flowed down her cheeks, and she made no attempt to hide them as she sobbed aloud in the entry plug.  
  
"Asuka..." Misato waited until the sobs abided and those ice blue eyes of the German girl raised up enough for her to see them. "He told me something before he left...he said...Tell Asuka that I-I love her..."  
  
"..."  
  
"Retreval crew are coming for you Asuka...I'm sorry."  
  
The plug went dark as the entry plug shut down in preperation to be ejected. And all Asuka could think about was all the times she had scorned him, rejected him, insulted him...she started once more to cry in the plug.  
  
"Where am I?" Shinji Ikari said aloud in the solid white room he lay in. No answer came. Wondering how he got there, he stood on the plane of nothingness that he found himself laying on and slowly looked around at his surroundings. Vast emptyness surrounded him, stretching for endless amounts of infinity in every direction man could percive.  
  
"How did I get here?" He asked the air softly.  
  
"You died."  
  
Shinji jumped at the sudden voice behind him, and spun around in the void to face the speaker.  
  
"Who are you?!" He demanded of the speaker.  
  
"I am an angel."  
  
"What?"  
  
Shinji stepped back and looked at the small boy that looked to be around his age. The boy had gray hair and red eyes, with a slight build of musculature on his thin frame. He also had a pair of black feathered wings that streached a good twenty feet across the void.  
  
"Well, a fallen messenger to be more precise. My name is Abraham, although you lilim call me the third angel."  
  
"The third?..but, I killed...you?"  
  
"Yes, and I died. This, however, is not heaven so don't think for one second that it is."  
  
"Then, is it hell?"  
  
"NO! No, its not...This is a pocket void. A place of storage and of solitude for those who seek it."  
  
"Why am I here?" Shinji gestured with his hands.  
  
"You are here to prepare yourself Shinji Ikari. You are here to finish your fight with the last angel, Jacob."  
  
"More fighting?" Shinji's legs buckled underneath him and he slumped down into a sitting position. "I'm tired of fighting...it got me nothing and...and, oh what could you know about my troubles?"  
  
"I know that you left a loved one behind, and so does God. That is why you were given a second chance to return and fight." Abraham folded in his wings to the sides and helped Shinji to his feet. "And that's why I'm here to help you."  
  
"Asuka...its been nearly two months...please, talk to me?" Misato Katsuragi stood outside the door of what used to be Shinji's room. Ever since the last angel dissapeared along with Shinji, Asuka had taken up sleeping in his room, moving nothing and touching very little. Sometimes Misato could hear her crying in the deep hours of night, it hurt a lot for her to listen. Not that she hadn't had her own problems too. A week after he had left, she became so drunk that she was poisoned by the alcohal. Only Asuka's quick thinking and fast driving had saved her from an untimely death. Misato had been sober for a month and a half now.  
  
"Asuka, I'm coming in...alright?"  
  
The door slid back to reveal Asuka sitting on the side of Shinji's bed, looking at a small picture in a silver frame. A small glint of light fell from her face to land quietly on the glass cover of the picture.  
  
"She's crying again." Misato thought with pity.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Asuka, why what?"  
  
"Why didn't he tell me sooner...why didn't he TELL ME?!" Asuka shouted the last two words and looked at her friend and guardian. Misato grimaced slightly as she saw the dark rings under her 15 year old ward's eyes. Soon those eyes teared over again, and she collapsed inward shaking with sobs. Misato quickly rushed over to her side and wrapped her in a warm embrace, the pair stayed that way for nearly two hours; slowly rocking back and forward.  
  
"Shinji Ikari, this place will be the center of your world until you are ready to return and fight Jacob, if that takes you a year, two, or even a thousand; you will have to return to the world of the living and fight him."  
  
"With what? The Eva? A lot of good the Eva did for me and Asuka when we fought him the last time!"  
  
"No, no the Evangelions will no longer be needed to fight the last three angels."  
  
"You sound sure of yourself." Shinji muttered sarcasticly as he once again sank to his knees and tried to remember Asuka.  
  
"And God decreed that the last three mesengers of fate would take the forms of men, and they would be fought by a man of truth and valor if one could be found and brought forth. And this man would carry tools of his own make, and use them to fight the three, until he died...or until they failed. Do you know where that comes from Shinji?"  
  
"No, but you're going to answer that aren't you?"  
  
"Yes...it comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls...the same scrolls that made your father search for Adam, the same scrolls that made a three thousand year old society fund a small paramilitary organization and armed them with the false Adams: the Evangelions."  
  
"So all of my actions were planned out on a piece of three thousand year old paper...then why am I dead?"  
  
"The scrolls never said the man was alive."  
  
Both Shinji and Abraham stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, soon though, Shinji rose to his feet and asked the fallen messenger a question.  
  
"If I go back, will I be able to stay until my natural death?"  
  
"Your life will be restored to you, and your ressurection will return you to what your natural body would look like if it had never dissapeared." Abraham assured Shinji. Shinji looked at his sneakered feet for a moment and then back up at Abraham.  
  
"I'll do it." He held out his hand and was met by a firm, warm grasp from the angel. "But...how will I fight him? I have no tools or weapons on me?"  
  
"That is because you must make them first." Abraham gestured behind Shinji, who upon turning around found himself looking into an anchient blacksmiths shop from the thirteenth century. "You'll need to make yourself a decent set of armor...not to mention a strong sword."  
  
It had been two and a half years since the boy known as Shinji Ikari had dissapeared in the human creation Evangelion. Asuka regretted every hour of that time because of what she and he had failed to do. Now, standing on the roof of the building next to which both she and he had been attacked by the fifthteenth angel, Asuka Langely Sohryu silently looked at the empty space where Unit 01 had stood before.  
  
"Shinji," She called out softly. "I'm sorry that I treated you the way I did. I'm sorry that I didn't pay closer attention to you. And I'm sorry that we never talked to each other when we both knew that we loved each other. I still love you Shinji, you'll always be my one and only Baka...I just wish that I could see you again..." She stopped talking at this point and started to cry her silent, remorseful tears of anguish.  
  
Shinji ducked and pivoted on the balls of his feet, quickly swinging around to face his imaginary opponent in the vast void of the pocket dimension. Moving quickly and with the speed drilled into his taller and heavily muscled frame of nearly three years, he thrust and spun his finely forged sword through the white null of his existance. He flipped easily into the air and landed as gracefully and as silently as a cat back on his feet, facing the opposite direction and raising his sword to block an imaginary downcut of his false opponents blade. He crouched when he completed the movement and brought his swords blade down in a arcing sweep to his foes midsection. Sweat dripped from his nose as he stood still in the final stage of the movement, his muscles not moving the tip a millimeter. A sudden clapping brought him back to the situation at present.  
  
"Bravo, bravo Shinji. That was most excellent, does the armor slow you down at all?" Abraham asked as he approached from the side of infinite space. As the lad of 17 shook his head from side to side, Abraham could only note how much more the boy had matured while he was trapped in the void. Shinji had grown quite a deal in the three years since his death, and his 5' 10" frame was now covered by a swarth of muscle from the daily workouts he had endured for nearly a year. His hair had grown out a length too, nearly reaching the middle of his shoulderblades and bound up by a piece of leather to put it in a controlled ponytail. Another stark contrast to the 14 year old who died what seemed like so long ago was the shined and gleaming armor that covered his shoulders, chest, stomach, and back.  
  
"He looks a lot like Ryoji Kaji with that stubble too." Abraham noted silently as he watched Shinji run his hands over the four days worth that had collected on his face. "Well, I do belive that now is the time for you to decide what to do next."  
  
"What do you mean Abraham?" Shinji said in a neutral, controlled voice.  
  
"If you are ready, you can return at any time. But you must decide when."  
  
"You mean, I can return? Now?"  
  
"Yes...I hate to see you go, but prophecy can't wait forever."  
  
"I thought you said that I could stay here a thousand years and still return to fight the remaining three." Shinji said as he sheathed the sword, narrowing his eyes at his friend and compatriot of three years.  
  
"Oh, did I say that?"  
  
"Yes...but it doesn't matter. I AM, ready to go home...to Misato, to Rei, to Toji and Kensuke, and to...to Asuka."  
  
Abraham crossed over to Shinji and placed his hands on the boys shoulders.  
  
"My boy...no, you're no longer a boy...all that you have been through, all that you have sacrificed has made you a man. A true warrior poet you are Shinji Ikari...and before you go, I have one last parting gift for you."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"This will hurt a bit..." Abraham quickly chanted a few words and both Shinji and he were suddenly encased in a glow of blue-white light. A scream resonated throughout the void as Shinji felt his skin alongside his shoulderblades tearing open and the bone underneath spreading and reshaping into something new. A grind of metal followed by a what could only be described as a sword cutting trough a sheet of silk soon followed after the scream.  
  
"I am sorry Shinji, but all things come with some, if even small, amounts of pain." Abraham said steping away and admiaring his handywork, with Gods blessing of course. Shinji said nothing at all, but instead reached out and grabbed one of the many floating white feathers that eminated from the pair of wings that sprouted from his back.  
  
"I...I have wings like an angel. Why?"  
  
"God has blessed you. And with blessings of great power upon the dead, he has made you an angel. Not a messenger, but a true angel."  
  
Slowly, understanding and peace spread across Shinji's face, and with a small grimace of pain the wings retracted through the slots in his armor and reshaped themselves into his skin.  
  
"Shinji...I wish you luck. Although I grieve that we became enemies out of necessity, I will remember our time here, and hope that you succede. Goodbye Shinji." The two beings clasped each others hands in a firm grip and hugged for a short amount of time before they both were overcome by another flash of light. Then they were gone.  
  
"OH MY GOD!" Aoba Shigeru lept out of his seat in the once bustling command bridge and quickly rechecked all of the Magi's sensory readings. It was exactly three years since the last angel had dissapeared along with Shinji Ikari, and now if what he was reading was correct, there were two blue patterns showing up in the heart of Tokyo-3. He activated the citywide PA system and hit a large red button off to the side.  
  
"Attention all civilian personell. Report to your underground shelters immediatly. I repeat, report to the shelters immediatly. TWO, REPEAT, TWO ANGELS HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED WITHIN TOKYO-3! ALL NERV PERSONELL RETURN TO BASE. THIS IS NO DRILL!"  
  
Asuka Langley Sohryu, now aged seventeen and looking even more beatuiful and ravashing as ever stood on the building nearby which Unit 01 had stood three years earlier. She had heard the announcement and noticed all of the people leaving the area quickly and efficiently, but she did not leave. For across the strech of road and on buildings eaqually as tall as hers stood two beings wearing armor and carring heavy swords. One of the beings had wings of coal black feathers, and the other looked for all purposes as a man who came from the past.  
  
Shinji stood on the building with his shining armor heating slowly in the warm afternoon sun. Underneath his shoulder greaves he had chosen to wear a ankel long, sleevless brown robe of a rough cotton. He slowly looked around to see if he still remembered everything about the world he had left from unwillingly, and in his glances he noticed one curious onlooker on a nearby skyscraper. The wind picked up then and whipped his shoulder long hair and his loose robe around to the left as it also carried over the voice of the messenger of God.  
  
"So redeemed one. Do you care to fight for the fate of man again?" Called the black winged angel across the chasm of buildings. Turning his eyes away from the innocent person to the angel of the mind, he called back his reply challenge.  
  
"Yes Jacob. I am ready to face you today. And today we finish the fight from three years before!"  
  
Without another word Shinji ran from the center of the roof he was on and lept headfirst into the air.  
  
Asuka shouted out in suprise as the armored man jumped into the air, and then tried to shout a warning to him about the winged being flying down and following him. What happened next suprised her enough to force her to her knees as she watched.  
  
Shinji fell ten stories before he heard a scream echo from off of the concrete buildings beside him.  
  
"That sounded like...like Asuka."  
  
Immediatly he brought up the image of himself with the newly acquired wings to his foremind and was rewarded by a small twinge of pain followed by a rip of cloth as they shredded through the cotton robe. Spreading them wide he slowed his descent and rotated upwards just in time to catch the descending sword that had been aimed at his back. Sparks flew from the enjoined blades and the pair of angels, one fallen and one redeemed, fell rapidly to the ground.  
  
"Fight me pure one. Fight for the lifes you failed to protect before!" Jacob taunted and goaded Shinji as they fell. Anger flared in Shinji's eyes, and something happened that startled the fallen angel immensly. The eyes of Shinji Ikari glazed over and became filled by a blue white flame that seeped out of the corners only to disperse a few centimeters away from their sources. Shinji spun his sword through the air and forced the two blades apart before coming back down across the armored breastplate of Jacob. The angel gave a shrill cry of pain as the edge cut cleanly and sharply across his left breast and then trailed down to his right ribcage. Blood the color of LCL flowed out of the wound as Shinji completed the downstroke and furiously flapped his angelic wings in order to slow his descent. Jacob, through the haze of pain, copied Shinji but both slammed hard enough into the ground to cause impressions of their boots to show in the asphalt.  
  
"Not bad..." Jacob said sounding slightly strained as he licked his angelic blood coated fingers. "Not bad at all redeemed. But to kill me you must do better than that."  
  
With the fire still curling slightly around the sides of his face, Shinji mearly nodded and raised up his sword into a defensive position. Then the two began to dance. Jacob led off with a sweeping cut down aimed at cleaving Shinji in two pieces, which was deftly blocked and diverted to the side were it only tore the robe that swirled around Shinji's feet. Shinji counterattacked by sweeping down at the exposed right shoulder and smiled grimly as it landed a decent, if glancing, blow that drew out more blood. The angel flapped his wings and was sent flying backwards down the deserted street, a trail of LCL following him.  
  
"Come back HERE!"  
  
Shinji unfurled his wings and sped quickly to rejoin the fight. With a skirl and clash of steel on steel, the two holy combatants met again and then broke apart. They floated silently five meters off of the ground for a good minute before they both broke in opposite directions flying as fast as they could. After a few seconds, both angels banked sharply and skimmed across the facade fronts of the skyscrapers surrounding them speeding for each other once again. With flashes of glinting metal too fast to be seen normally, the two swords met, sought an opening, and struck. Shinji and Jacob fell to the ground clutching their new wounds. For Shinji it was a long gash cutting alongside the length of his arm. For Jacob it was a painful pierce in his side that managed to go through his armor. His blood flowed freely and openly down his side and onto the ground below him. He knew instantly that he had been wounded mortally, and so forknowing his death he turned and faced his slayer.  
  
"Rede-...Shinji."  
  
The sudden change in his enemys voice caused the teenager to turn and look at the fallen angel. The coal feathers wilted even as Shinji looked at him, and then started falling off rapidly.  
  
"You fight well Shinji...You sacrifice yourself for others, but two are still to come...As my brothers before, I now pass away and say this. In a different time...we could have...been...f-frie..n..ds."  
  
Jacob collapsed to the ground with a metallic crash and a clatter from his sword. Shinji rushed to the angels side and rolled him over, the fires in his eyes curling back in on themselves and going out. But it was too late for more words...Jacob, the fifthteenth fallen messenger from God, was dead  
  
"Go in peace brother. God forgive his sins."  
  
Sheathing his sword and spreading his wings, Shinji lifted off of the ground and headed up to the place where he saw the curious onlooker. He reached the height of the building but saw no one there.  
  
"Probably left to take shelter..." Shinji's line of thought was interrupted by the sudden shreek of rubber on pavement. Glancing down he saw the blue car Misato drove three years earlier pulled to a stop beside the dead messenger. Misato stepped out of the car with a few security men and moved over to the fallen body. From the same building Shinji stood on ran out a woman with red...hair.  
  
"Asuka...no, no I can't let them see me as this. Not yet, not now."  
  
He ran to the opposite side of the skyscraper and dropped off into the air below, speeding off to find some solitude in the mountians around Tokyo-3.  
  
Nine days later...  
  
"ASUKAAA! Your dates here and waiting for you!"  
  
"'Kay! I'll be out in a minute." She replied cheerfully, even though tears ran down her face.  
  
Asuka quickly wiped away the traces of her sadness and washed her face quickly with water. After making sure she looked normal after applying her makeup she stepped outside the bathroom and entered the livingroom. The young man by the name of Hyuka Rishtimayo stood and found himself unable to speak as he looked over his date, his eyes roaming over her furiously. Asuka gently smiled and struck a slight pose that within her nearly skintight dress showed off even more of her body. By now Hyuka was drooling.  
  
"Pervert...but he almost looks like Shinji..."  
  
"R-ready to go, Asuka?" Hyuka asked shifting nervously on his feet. She nodded affirmative and the pair started towards the door of the miraculously clean apartment when Misatos sing-song voice held them up.  
  
"Auska. Can I see you for only a minute?"  
  
"Sure Misato."  
  
Leaving Hyuka at the door she stepped back into the kitchen where Misato was drinking a cup of tea. Slowly she stood up and held out her arms to the redheaded pilot, who quickly stepped into them and returned a hug.  
  
"Now remember, no drinking...and-"  
  
"Be back before one, Misato I know already."  
  
"Good...one more thing. Take this." Misato reached into a cabinet nearby and removed a deadly looking pistol. Asuka shook her head and almost took a step back. Realizing what she was thinking Misato tried to controll her laughter.  
  
"N-no silly...look, there's another angel loose somewhere and we can't find it. You may just run into him and he may have his field down."  
  
"Misato?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Thats the stupidist thing I've heard in nearly a year."  
  
Misato just laughed at that but still handed Asuka the weapon. She quickly placed it into her purse and left the apartment with her date, heading for the Senior Prom Dance at the school  
  
Shinji walked slowly in the cool afternoon sunlight, occasional gusts of wind stiring up his unfettered hair and his slashed and tattered robes as the scabbard that held his sword bounced along his back as he walked aimlessly near the outskirts of Tokyo-3. As he walk his hand ran across the bloodstained bandage of his robe that he had applied to himself a few days ago. It hurt still but the pain could be ignored. As he walked he kept his eyes on the glinting skyline of Tokyo-3, still amazed that even after three years it was still as beautiful as he remembered.  
  
"But its still not as beautiful as Asuka." Shinji said aloud, dropping his hands to the side and sighing deeply. He stopped walking and remained there long enough for the sun to sink behind the hills and for the stars to show. When he looked up again it was beacuse of the unnerving sensation that he was being watched. He drew out his sword with lightning speed and whirled around slashing it through the air behind him. He met and saw nothing, but the feeling remained with him. Seeing lights off in the distance to the right, Shinji decided that now would be a good time to see what rumors were going around about his fight. Even as he ran though, the feeling stuck to him.  
  
The dance was not going well for Asuka. Twice the boy she was with tried to go further down her side than she wanted, and he also tried to kiss her on the dance floor. Needless to say she was feeling very pissed off and violated when she collapsed into a seat next to her longtime friend Hikari Horaki and her own boyfriend Toji Susahara. Over the years Toji and Asuka finally came to accept the fact that neither would back down or leave the city or die, despite all the wishes they made to that effect. And so, came to a mutual agreement to ignore each other for as much as possible. But today she was feeling testy.  
  
"Asuka whats wrong?" Hikari asked looking concerned for her friend.  
  
"Was it that attack last week?" Toji asked perceptivly, cutting to the root of her problems. Also over the years Toji had matured greatly, and managed to develop a keen sense of a persons thoughts and moods. Another thing Asuka hated about him being around her when she felt bad.  
  
"Is it?" He pressed.  
  
"YES! Yes...it is." Asuka shouted over the music at him. Several dancers nearby turned to look at the source of the shout, then turned away again as they saw who had shouted. Hyuka winced when he saw her shout and felt that it would be in his best intrest to leave before she noticed him again. He turned around and kept to the shadows as he slowly made his way over to the double doors leading out of the gym that the dance was being held in. Reaching the doors he blew a sigh of relief and glanced around.  
  
"Excuse me."  
  
The light musical voice made Hyuka jump a foot into the air and whirl around in a loose defense stance as he faced the speaker. He found his attacker to be nothing more than a young man with light gray hair and red eyes, strange colors yes but when you had classes with Rei Ayanami you became used to such strange colors on a person. He could even see a slight resembalance between the two.  
  
"Y-yes?" Hyuka answered hesitantly, dropping his stance and adjusting the tuxedo he wore. That was another thing, the boy facing him wore no formal suit for the dance.  
  
"I was just wondering if this was the school that all of the Evangelion pilots went to?"  
  
"Yes. It is." He said exasperatedly, grinding his teeth as he looked away remebering his embaressment when Asuka had slapped him in the middle of the dance floor.  
  
"Oh. Thank You."  
  
Hyuka turned to respond to the polite comment but found himself flying backwards through the air and the double doors of the gym, a sharp pain eminating from the center of his sternum. He was dead before the first screams could leave the mouths of several dancers. The boy that killed him stepped calmly into the panicked crowd and smiled a dark evil smile. Asuka could only stare in horror as the boy with gray hair paled and became a luminescent white form resembaling a human. She dimly heard Hikari scream as the boy unfolded his pair of ink black wings and pulled out from his body a piece of light that reformed into a flaming sword of blue fire.  
  
"Fear Lillim, for the angel of forms has come. NOW IS THE TIME FOR RECKONING! ALL SHALL BE SERVED BEFORE ME!!"  
  
"I don't think so." Came a calm, reassuring voice from the shattered doors behind the angel.  
  
"WHAATT?! Who DARES to defy my words?!" The sixteenth angel, Judas screamed as he whipped around to face the door. Standing there with the soft streetlights outlining and defining his form and cloths perfectly, stood Shinji Ikari. Only a few could see his face, but the angel had no trouble making out his opponents features.  
  
"YOU!"  
  
"Me." Shinji responded, willing for his eyes to let loose their fire. Several people fainted when the eyes of the armored man with the tattered robes eyes became filled with blue-white fire of their own. But Asuka did not. If anything she was fascinated by the fact and somehow felt that she knew the man at the doorway. With curls of fire nipping at his eyebrows, Shinji drew his sword and dropped into a ready stance. The angels sword dissapeared back into its body and in the instant that Shinji was stunned by this change of tactics he was railroaded from behind. Another glowing being with ink black wings like the first angel wrapped his arms firmly around Shinji's arms and locked its hands behind his head. Shinji knew a moment of fear and despair as the other angel rushed forward at a blinding speed to land a punch into his stomach armor. Steel cracked and bent underneath the hard first punch from the angel, and Shinji lost all of the breath inside of his lungs causing his head to spin and his hand to drop his sword. The angel punched twice more into his stomach, and on the third blow: blood came flying up into Shinji's mouth.  
  
"And now Redeemed...you DIE!" The sneering face before Shinji proclaimed as its hand formed into a knife edge as it drew back alongside the ribcage of its wielder. Shinji's head drooped from the pain he was experiancing, but a strange sound brought it flying back up. Asuka had finally regained enough of her senses to draw her pistol and shoot at one of the black winged angels holding onto the unidentified man between them. She was not suprised too much when the bullet was stopped by an AT Field.  
  
"I knew it wouldn't work. Sorry Misato, this may be my last fight." She thought wildly to herself.  
  
The angel however, was furious that a Lilim would interrupt his glorious victory against the one who had killed so many of his kin.  
  
"FOOLISH MORTAL!" It screamed as the opposite arm flew out and streached to immpossibly long lengths to strike Asuka squarely in the face. She flew back several feet and rolled along the floor, clutching at the painful spot alongside her jaw. Shinji saw the flash of red in the girls hair, and rationallized quickly that only Asuka or Rei would even think about carrying a weapon to the school dance. And that made him angry.  
  
"You...BAASSSTTTAAAAARRRRRD!"  
  
And with an eruption of blue white fire, Shinji released his wings to their full length of ten feet and grabbed the angel that had struck Asuka. Becasue of his sudden wing release, the second angel was sent flying backwards into the wall behind the trio; the outer wall behind the area where the angel struck started to crack violently when he hit. But the first angel would not get off so luckly. Grabbing the undersides of its arms he flapped his wings forcefully against the air and propelled them heavenward. The angel screamed and thrashed violently as the blue aura of flames that now surrounded Shinji was pressed tight against his skin. Smoke the color of blood curled away from the points of contact and the angel punched Shinji desperatly in its attempt to free itself. Soon its wish was granted, but not in the way it wanted. When the pair had reached the ceiling of the building Shinji deftly released his prisoner and flipped nimbly in the air, catching hold of the two black wings instead. With a cry of agony that shattered several windows along the top of the gym, the two symbols of a fallen angel were parted with their owner and consumed by a burst of flames emintaing from Shinji before they died out. The dessicated angel fell helplessly to the hard floor below him, and landed with a sicking crunch of bone and another cry of pain. Shinji dropped down next to his sword and quickly made his way over to the angel, intent on ending its existance before another could be hurt. He dropped into a run and closed the distance between himself and the angel, and was almost within the absolute kill range of his weapon when his quarrys body intensified into a beam of light that shot out to the impression in the cement wall. The light connected with the unconsious angel laying their and engulfed it totally. When it dimmed enough for Shinji to see, the angel was standing up slowly and flexing its hands.  
  
"Well, well...almost had me there. But I will not die so EASILY!" Both arms lanced up and out towards Shinji, their hands becoming shapeless forms of light that split off into dozens of strands that raced for him.  
  
"SHIIITTTT!"  
  
Shinji flapped furiously in an attempt to evade most of the strands, and used the sword to deflect others that came too close. But one strand was heading for the unmoving form of Asuka nearby.  
  
"ASUKAAAA!"  
  
With no way to deflect the strand he chose his only other option. Asuka slowly reganed a semblance of a working mind when she heard a sicking crunch closeby to her.  
  
Shinji felt pain that was to say unbelivable to experiance. Nothing in his life, not in Eva, not before, not after, had he ever felt anything remotly like this. The stream of the angel had cleanly shot through his armor and entered his lower right ribs. The pain numbed his hands and his legs, which buckled beneath him letting him sink to the floor with a grind of metal. His sword fell once more to the floor from his numbed fingers and landed amongst the small pool of blood that was running from his wounds.  
  
"I've...I've failed once again..."  
  
"YES! DIE REDEEMED ONE! YOU HAVE FOUGHT FOR NOTHING! ALL OF MANKIND WILL BE JUDGED AND NO ONE CAN STOP THE APOCALYPSE!" The angel cried maniacly as he retracted his sliver of essence from Shinji's broken form. As Shinji fell forward he was caught by a pair of strong arms that wrapped around him. The arms pulled him against the body they were attached to, and then laid him down across the persons lap. Through the haze of pain he could make out a pair of blue eyes and a long length of soft, silky, red hair that gently brushed and tickled his nose. He also felt a drop of liquid on his face and felt that he himself was also crying.  
  
"Asuka..." Shinji reached up with a hand and tried to touch his loves face. He found his strength flagging only halfway their though and wondered if he would never be able to touch her when she suddnely took his hand in hers and pulled up alongside her cheek, letting him carress the smooth and soft flesh gently as she carefully held him close against her body.  
  
"Sh-Shinji...I...I lov-" Asuka was gently silenced by his fingers coming across her lips. The angel nearby made gagging gestures as he turned away and headed off to complete his mission of contacting Adam. His forehead came into close contact with the barrel of Asuka's pistol and he could only look at the weilder, Toji Susahara, with confusion and fear evident on his face.  
  
"Block this!" Toji shouted as he pulled back on the trigger, sending a 9mm slug boring directly into the skull and then out again. The angel collapsed on the floor, his face still registering shock at his sudden end.  
  
To be continued...  
  
Phionex of the Fallen notes: Man, this was an interesting fic to write. This is actually the first one that I will have finished and sent out to the community for reviews. I do have several other fics (including some non Eva ones) in varying degrees of completeion written up and I may decide to release those at any time. After this one I will probably put out my big project: Wishfull Thinking. And I must say that the writing style differs slightly from this one so I urge you to look for that and read it as well. All of my fics are inspired by Evangelion: Made by those blessed people who work and own Ganaix. Damn, now how the hell much was it to buy the thing? I also think that Ganaix should sell out a liscence to collaborations of fanfic writers to come up with alternate book storylines (okay what the hell time in the morning was it that I came up with this shit?). Next episode: Asuka and Shinji, Shinji and Shinji's Inner Voice, Toji and Hikari, Kensuke and...REI? As well as the final angel.  
  
P.S.: The part where Toji Kills the Angel? Well think the Matrix...If the agents in the Martix can dodge the bullets when they have some distance between the shooter, then they aren't hit...but get up close and personal...So I think that an AT Field can only deflect those hits and shots given a certian amount of distance between the angels flesh and the object of impact. Okay, so I am rambling...people do say that I am eccentric...SHUT UP!! 


	2. Chapter 2, Endings

An Evangelion Fanfic written by:  
  
Phionex of the Fallen  
  
All characters are owned by (insert owners name here) and not by (insert fanfic authors Psuedonym here). All original storylines for the series are not owned by said author and he has made up this story you are about to read himself. Don't sue me, were not worthy. (Note: Creators of Waynes World please do not sue me either.)  
  
Asuka, My love: Part 2  
  
Shinji felt cold. It was a strange feeling for him because for three years of his life he had felt nothing but warm sensations while he trained himself to return to Earth to finish the fight against the angels.  
  
A slight whoosh of air.  
  
The air smelled clean, sterile, devoid of any scents or flavorings to its bland composure at all. A tickling sensation slowly made itself aware in the cavernous recesses of his mind.  
  
Another whoosh of air, then a low electronic beeping.  
  
"Where am I?" Shinji wondered aloud in his mind.  
  
"Here." Came an answer.  
  
"Where is here?" He asked in return, having long become familiar with the aspect of his mind that coversed with him in extreme circumstances.  
  
"Where would you like it to be?"  
  
"What kind of question is that?..Fine, I want to be at my home, with Asuka and Misato and Pen Pen!" Shinji's voiced echoed in the empty spaces of his neural synapses.  
  
"Then you are there."  
  
Shinji closed his eyes and slowly he felt the cold surrounding his body seep away. He no longer felt the tickle of air that bothered him or the low beep and near silent humming from indescriminate electronics. What replaced them was warmth and silence. Slowly he opened his eyes.  
  
In a small room deep underground in the slightly dilapitated pyrimid that was NERV Headquarters sat Gendo Ikari at his massive and impressive desk surrounded by an eaqually massive and impressive room. Etched into the ceiling and illuminated by lighting in the floor sat a representation of the Tree of Life. It was at this etching Ikari was staring at quietly as Kozou Fuyutski entered the room with Rei Ayanami trailing behind him.  
  
"Ikari..."  
  
"He's back. This is...unexpected...."  
  
Rei walked forward with Fuyutski until they stood before that massive and bare desk. Ikari continued to stare at the ceiling, taking no note of either of the two but somehow knowing exactly what they were doing at the same time.  
  
"Yes...and I have some other unusual news. It's about Seele."  
  
Ikari slowly lowered his head to look at Fuyutski and then turned his eyes to face Rei as he steepled his hands on his desk. Rei knew then that she was supposed to elaborate on the statement.  
  
"Two days ago Kensuke Aida sliced his way into heavily encrypted files at an unknown point. He had found a database storage facility for an unregistered corparation that gave a listing of a transport of one Karou Nagisa to a registered NERV collection site." Rei said in her usual soft monotone.  
  
"Karou Nagisa...Fuyutski?"  
  
Fuyutski reached into his hip pocket and pulled out a data disc and insterted it into a small slot near a collection of buttons and diodes near the rear of the massive desk. He pressed a single flashing diode nearby the slot and stepped back as the holoscreen containing Nagisa's data to appear.  
  
"A new pilot...from Seele..."  
  
Shinji opened his eyes and gazed up to a bare and uninviting ceiling. But he knew the ceiling, it was HIS ceiling. Shinji sprang out of his bed and ran out of his room, heading for the living room. As he entered he tripped over a collection of beer cans and stumbled his way over to the sofa. Sitting in the sofa, listening to music coming from a familiar SDAT player sat his one desire of the mortal world to which he had returned: Asuka.  
  
"...Asuka..."  
  
Suddenly the redhead turned off the music and spun around, her eyes widening when she saw Shinji. At first shock flowed across her face, then anger and then joy. Impossibly quick she lept across the sofa, the SDAT earplugs falling out of her ears as she did so, and onto the very suprized Shinji sending both of them to the ground.  
  
"SHINJI! You're here, you're awake, you're ALIVE! MISATO!!" She shouted as she simultaneously hugged and cryed on the boy who held her attention for more than four years of her life. Shinji uneasily accepted the hugs but smiled all the same as Misato and Pen Pen came into the livingroom with beers in hand to find the two of them on the ground.  
  
"SHINJI!" Misato cried out as she dropped her beer to the ground and ran over to help pick him up and hug him as well.  
  
"Warrk?"  
  
"This is also unexpected...it could mean a delay in the final project." Gendo closed the holofile and restepled his hands.  
  
"Seele will also be interested in this Aida, they apparently know he decrypted these files."  
  
"There are agents?" Gendo asked his onetime professor cooly.  
  
"Two."  
  
Gendo fell silent for a moment as he weighed out situations and balanced them with his own plans and needs. He unfolded his hands and reached for a drawer down near the floor. He opened it and pulled out a black leather sholder holster and slid it across the expanse of desk towords Rei. The metal pistol and gleaming blalance clips let off a cold sheen as they waited on the desk.  
  
"Rei will handle the situation."  
  
"I will attempt to locate these agents at-"  
  
"No...you will 'handle' the situation. Understood."  
  
Rei blinked, once, and then slowly nodded to the commander once before reaching for the holster and leaving. Once the door had closed Fuyutski turned and glared at his superior.  
  
"That wasn't wise Ikari. She could be hurt if the others attack at the same time. And killing a kid..."  
  
Gendo camly resteepled his hands and stared hard at the sub-commander until he fell silent and still. They remained that way for several minutes before Fuyutski turned and walked out of the office.  
  
It was several hours later and Shinji was feeling, pampered. He had never been treated like this before in his life, and Misato teasing him about the way he squirmed when Asuka suddenly gave him a deep kiss hadn't helped the situation. Soon came dinner, and Misato stood up to go and search for food in the refridgerator, and turned up empty.  
  
"Oh, don't worry. I can go get us some." Asuka voluntereed.  
  
"I'll go with you Asuka." Shinji said with a large smile as they stood together.  
  
"OKAY THEN! Yay, just like old times...but Shinji, don't try to do anything with Asuka, okay? I would like to eat sometime this week."  
  
Both Shinji and Asuka blushed furiously at the comment before shouting loudly at their guardian to be quiet and mind her own affairs and storming out.  
  
Kensuke Aida spent most of his seventeen years of life either reading extensive fantasy books, or working furiously on his computers. That latter statement was more often than true as of late in his life. Ever since he had confirmed Shinji actually alive and back in Tokyo-3 he had been slicing into every encrypted file he could find on the vast web of information on the net. He had found several interseting tidbits of information, including a recent addend to the Evangelion Pilots, Karou Nagisa. But nothing about Shinji or where he had been for three years of his life.  
  
"Its as if he dissapeared.." Kensuke mused idley as he rocked back and forward in his computer chair, desperatly thinking of somewhere he hadn't already scoured for information about Shinji. He was still like that as three seperate bullets slammed into him from three different angles, one from his left, one from the right, and one from directly behind. All piercing his fragile cranium and then shooting out again. Kensuke slumped down quickly onto his keyboard, the gaps between the keys rapidly filling with his dark red blood and gray-yellow brain matter.  
  
Shinji and Asuka returned from the store and found Misato passed out on the sofa, a new pile of Yebisu cans centered around a like-wise inebriated penguin. They both laughed at the sight and went into the kitchen to prepare dinner for the two of them. After Shinji finished putting away the extra food he washed quickly and dished the quick ramen and curry mix onto plates before setting them out on the table. They both picked at their food as they filled the other in on what had been happening during their three year seperation. Finishing the cold food nearly an hour later they both felt weary and yet at the same time invigorated by seeing each other. Tossing a blanket over Misato and moving Pen Pen gently into his refridgerator they both went to their bedrooms and took a moment to hug each other. Shinji decided to be bold and gave Asuka a kiss before he slipped away into the dark recess of his room. Asuka remained outside a moment longer before touching her lips and smiling at the door before heading off on her own. Shinji smiled broadly as he dropped down on his bed and looked up at the ceiling. He fell asleep soon after but tossed and turned all through the night. His dreams disrupted by a slight tickle on his face and his ears filled with a soft hum and beep from somewhere out in the city.  
  
"The mission is complete." Rei camly said as she placed the pistol and holster onto the desk of Gendo Ikari without a sound.  
  
"Good. The Fifth Child is arriving today, I wish for you to meet him. He will arrive by route B at 1345 hours."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
Two hours later, the cold and enigmatic Rei waited at the top of an escelator as a gray haired boy of 17 slowly ascended. At the top he smoothly stepped away from the stairs and walked up to the lithe girl.  
  
"You are Rei Ayanami, correct?" He asked in a musical tone.  
  
A nod was all he was given in return.  
  
"I sense that we have a lot in common with each other. Much more than either of us suspects I imagine." He said as he offered his arm to her. She pointedly refused his attempt by turning away and walking forward.  
  
"This way," Her voice floated back to the new pilot. "We need to perform a synchronization test with the Eva for you."  
  
She led the new and engimatic boy through a seeming labyrinth of tunnels and walkways before she arrived at the pilots ready-room.  
  
"The plug suit is in there. Do you need assistance in putting it on?" She asked still emotionless. Karou gave her a small and warm smile.  
  
"No I belive I can handle myself." He answered as she opened the door for him.  
  
Later, Rei stood impassivly nearby a console manned by the shy and timid Maya Ibuki and the stalwart Ritsuko Akagi as they ran the tests over the new boy. He first attempted to synch with Eva Unit 01, but he was almost immediatly rejected from the unit. Next he tried Unit 00 and recived similar results.  
  
"Try again, this time in Unit 02," Ritsuko said tiredly to the soft-spoken boy. He slowly climbed out and moved over to the next Eva in line as Ritsuko turned off the mike and analysed the data from the first two attempts. "Asuka won't be happy with this..."  
  
"Well, why should we need another pilot for anyway? We have two operational Evas and we haven't even used them against the last two angels that attacked."  
  
"Don't question the orders from above Maya...that's rule number one of the military life." Ritsuko sighed.  
  
Karou climbed into the plug and activated it. The sudden scroll of data that flowed into the screens caused Ritsuko and Maya to gasp a bit and lean forward. To Rei's bemusement they began to talk in hushed tone and rapidly typed in commands or requests of the Magi. Soon they shut down the test protocals and told Karou he could leave for his quarters. They continued to talk rapidly as Rei left to meet up with Nagisa and escort him to his room.  
  
Shinji rolled over on his bed and winced at the feeling of cold sheets that assulted his senses. Slowly he opened his eyes and blinked. In his ears he heard a beeping and hissing sound that intermittantly sounded out quietly but loudly enough for him to hear. He sat up and rubbed his sleep ridden eyes in an attempt to regain his senses and when he finally lowered his hands he screamed and scrambled backwards on his hands and feet. He sat in a black void, strangly similar to the pocket space he had trained in before returning to Earth, and before him stood a small...Shinji, staring at the last vestages of bedsheets slowly melting into the floor and fading out of existance. Then the small Shinji looked up at the cowering one and smiled. That smile made Shinji feel as though his soul was being frozen by liquid nitrogen as it was ripped from his body.  
  
"Still unaccepting the truth...still running away. You fear pain?" The apparition asked slowly and coldly for Shinji.  
  
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?" He shouted as he stood and backed away a few more steps.  
  
"Don't you know yet? Haven't you recived a message telling your simple mind what and who I am?"  
  
"STOP SPEAKING IN RIDDLES! ANSWER ME! WHERE DID MY ROOM GO? WHERE DID MISATO GO? WHERE DID ASUKA GO!!!!!"  
  
The small apparation of Shinji smiled even wider and pointed to the left. Shinji turned and gasped at the sight he saw.  
  
Asuka sat in a chair and gazed sadly at the unmoving form of the love of her life. Shinji Ikari slept soundly in the emergancy box that was barely keeping him in the realm of the living. The tanks of purified oxygen hissed occasionally to keep the box filled with fresh air and the moniters hooked up to the various plugs and outlets beeped intermitantly as they continued to moniter the boys fragile condition. Hikari sat nearby Asuka, sleeping soundly in a plush chair as her friend waited for something to happen. Suddenly both girls were startled out of their respective reveries as the automatic door slid open and a red-eyed Toji Susahara stepped in.  
  
"Toji what's wrong?" Hikari asked slightly unsteadily as she sat up and blinked her eyes awake.  
  
"...Its....Kensuke...h-he's..." Toji sobbed quietly as he lowered his head and collapsed into a nearby chair. Both females in the room took a brief glance at each other before Hikari stood and went over to his side. She comforted him as much as she could while he stumbled over his words.  
  
"I k-knew something like h-his...harebrained activities w-would result in t- his..." He now openly cried into his palms.  
  
"Toji...something has happened to Kensuke?" Hikari gently probed.  
  
"...HE'S DEAD! H-He was shot three times in the head....dammit all..." Toji tore his hands away from his face and punched the aluminum folding chair nearby. His right hook left a sizable imprint in the seat and caused him to cry even more. Hikari gave Asuka a sympathetic glance before gently helping Toji to his feet and leading him out. Asuka shed a single tear before she regained controll of herself and turned back to Shinji, still sleeping in his coffin-like state.  
  
"Shinji, please come back to me...we all need you."  
  
Back in the black void Shinji slumped soundlessly to his knees as he witnessed the scene play before him.  
  
"No...no, this...this isn't true....this can't be HAPPENING!" He shouted, closing his eyes and clenching his hands in anger.  
  
"But it is. So what are you going to do about it?" Came the mocking tones of the smaller apparition.  
  
"...kill you...I'm gonna KILL YOU!" Shinji shouted as he released his wings from underneath his skin, the bones and matter easily forming and propelling him forward to the smiling phantom. He wrapped his fingers around the little boys throat and squeased hard. A satisfying crunch announced the snapping of the spinal cord and the little boy slouched bonelessly in Shinji's grasp. Then it dissapeared.  
  
"Do you really? Can you even?" Came the same cold voice from behind Shinji. Slow and steady footsteps echoed across the inky darkness and a new Shinji, this one nearly 15 stepped around to face the elder. "Or do you just want to languish in the subconsious of your mind while others wait for your return?"  
  
"Then tell me how I can return."  
  
"But you already know how..." The apparition smiled once more before he faded from view, taking the images of Shinji's hospital room with him.  
  
Karou Nagisa, dressed in what many described as typical Shinji-wear: a button up shirt and pressed slacks; stood before the motionless Evangelion Unit 02. He stared at it for what seemed an eternity, then he smiled and turned for the door.  
  
"These Lillim need their false Adams to fight for their survival. But I will not be demeaned and soiled by using such a disgusting and unholy piece of Lillim technology."  
  
Karou continued to quietly talk to himself as he walked down the corridors and towords the hospital. Heading to destroy the greatist threat to his mission as soon as possible. To destroy Shinji Ikari.  
  
Shinji sat in the void for a long time, contemplating what he should do to be released from this hellish menangerie that he was trapped in. Thats when he heard more footsteps echoing through the darkness. He slowly raised his head and let his shoulders slump in preperation for another verbal bashing from another him. He was suprised when Kensuke Aida came into the light of his vision.  
  
"S-Shinji?"  
  
"Kensuke...are you...real? Or am I just imagining things again."  
  
"Well, I could ask the same about you...where are we?" Kensuke asked, pushing his glasses up along the brige of his nose. Shinji watched this and decided to test him out. He quickly stood and moved over to Kensuke, who drew back slightly at his approach. Of course, having a friend with ten foot wings sticking out of his back would scare anyone, some more than others. Kensuke closed his eyes as he noticed Shinji draw back his hand, and then snapped them wide open when he felt a finger poke him in the stomach.  
  
"Getting a little flabby there eh?" Shinji remarked half-teasingly as he withdrew the probing digit.  
  
"You...you poked me? But I thought..."  
  
"That you were dead...I think you are...and now I can find my way out of here. I think..." Shinji started to glance around at the darkness and noticed it starting to fade to a pallid gray color.  
  
"Where is here?" Kensuke asked, gulping as Shinji turned his head back to look at him.  
  
"Purgatory. You're in Purgatory Kensuke."  
  
"That's a bad thing. I guess now I have to make a choice don't I?" Kensuke said aloud as he tried to remember anything useful written by Dante.  
  
"Yes, you do. And now I have to go. I hope you can make it out of here Kensuke, I wish you the best of luck." Shinji opened his wings and propelled himself up, leaving Kensuke behind in the gray null.  
  
"I hope to see you again my friend. Take care and good luck." Kensuke called to the fading Shinji. He gave a short sigh and then sat down and closed his eyes, trying to decide whether it would be worth it to fall into his temptations or struggle through an eternity of torment to make it to heaven.  
  
Shinji shot past the layers of Purgatory and rose further up until he reached a wall of scillincating colors. Spreading his arms wide he floated to the wall and then gently propelled himself up, entering the colors. Pain shot through him as he felt his soul being ripped away and purified, and then a sense of peace and well being as it was gently reabsorbed into his body. As his eyes cleared themselves of the colored spots swimming before his irises he found himself standing on a pathway of gold blocks. Standing nearby was Abraham, his wings tucked in and his arms crossed.  
  
"Well, certianly took you long enough."  
  
Karou walked camly past the sobbing Toji and Hikari and continued on until he reached the door marked with the kanji for: Ikari, Shinji.  
  
"Hun, all to easy." He said camly as the door swung open and he stepped through. He noticed Asuka start standing at his arrival and knew she would interfere with his plans. So he delt with her in the most expediant way possible. Brow furrowed, eyes blazing with an intense fury, he summoned that which all Lillim were gifted with but ignored. He summoned a powerful AT Field to form into a wave of power and slam Asuka into the wall behind her. Asuka stared dumbly as she noticed a wave of small dust particles start moving for her near Pilot Nagisa's feet. When the chairs and equiptment between them started to move as well she immediatly put her arms infront of her chest and lowered her head behind them in an effort to shield her body from the blow which she felt shure would come. It did, and she was bodily thrown into the wall, her left shoulder popping out of its joint as she hit. Asuka cried out loudly in pain.  
  
"What do you mean by that?" Shinji leaned forward and stared at Abraham nearly nosetip to nosetip.  
  
"Nothing...Look I-, oh...ahh...." Abraham clenched his eyes shut and grabbed the sides of his head as white pain flashed through his delicate synapses. "Shinji, you need to hurry. Get back to your body quickly! GO!"  
  
Shinji stood staring for a moment longer and then found himself being pushed by Abraham and told again to leave. He turned away and ran.  
  
Karou looked around at his handywork, admiring the way the Lillim could resist so much pain and still remain fighting. Several others besides Asuka were now pinned to the wall, and all of them still held a defiant look about their faces.  
  
"You foolish creations. You do not understand my works, my missions, my holy quests. You are to be judged, so we must judge you. But first...to buisness."  
  
With a wave of his hand and a direction of an AT Field the box covering Shinji Ikari's body was uncovered and the top thrown easily to the side. Shinji still slept, not moving a centimeter as he was lifted up out of the box and stood straight in the air.  
  
"So innocent, yet so repuslive. As well as weak." He commented, cocking his head slightly as he examined the boy.  
  
"H-he..is not....weak" Asuka managed to say from her corner of the wall. Tabris, the final angel of judgment simply smiled at her.  
  
"You cannot even begin to comprehend what true power is Lillim. You are all simply trash...trash that lives hedonistic lives of unholy filth in denial of God! You all deserve to die slowly in the pits of Hell. It is a pity that God looks on you with such understanding, a pity that you even had a chance to enter the sacred halls of heaven." Tabris said before he increased the AT Field holding her down in place. Another cry of pain came from her lips as she grimaced and bit her lip.  
  
"Always picking on the weak, you angels are always like that."  
  
"WHAT?!" Tabris snapped his head around to Shinji's floating body, only to be rammed by a strong AT Field and sent flying through the door. As he left all of the myriad persons pressed painfully into the walls slumped to the floor. Asuka managed to stay standing long enough to see Shinji open his eyes, now filled with flames of blue-white that boiled out of the corners, gently ease himself down to the floor and walk out the door.  
  
In the command center of NERV, the gathered crew and techs gasped collectivly as they saw Shinji walk camly out of the infirmiry and over to a cabinet that held his clothes, sword, and battered armor. Misato blushed slightly as she saw him stride out unclothed as he did but quickly banished any thoughts she had and turned towords Ritsuko.  
  
"Whats happening?"  
  
"Shinji was determined to be part angel a few days ago Misato. He simply generated an AT Field to give the Seventeenth a push out the door."  
  
"HE WHAT?!"  
  
"Alert Rei Major. Tell her to head for Terminal Dogma to retrieve the lance."  
  
"Alerting now ma'am. Apparently she was waiting in her Eva." Maya said with an uncertian voice.  
  
"Rei? Did you somehow learn of this before we did?" Misato thought rapidly before leaning forward over Huuga's shoulder. "Prepare the explosive devices in Terminal Dogma."  
  
"Yes ma'am. Ma'am? Its nice knowing I died serving with you." Huuga whispered softly to her, her eyes widened slightly and then narrowed down.  
  
"Same here Huuga. Same here..." Misato continued to lean close by him as she watched both Karou and Shinji start running, Shinji with his sword in hand and still unclothed, out of the hospital and for an Eva shaft. On another screen Unit 00 was dropped down the last hundred meters to land in the bizzare wasteland surrounding Terminal Dogma. The Eva took a moment to straighten itself before it moved slowly for the doors to Heavens Gate, to Adam.  
  
Shinji reached the open entrance to a steep and long Evangelion shaft and never hesitated to leap into the abyss. The last foe was only ten meteres below him and heading for his goal. Shinji narrowed his blazing eyes in concentration, he was determined to not let that happen. Letting his wings reveal themselves and unfold he quickly slowed his descent enough to come even with the last angel. And was shocked to find him floating down without any visable wings himself.  
  
"So Shinji Ikari...we meet at last." The angel said in a pleasnt tone, as if they weren't plummeting down at a rate fast enough to kill an ordinary man. As if Shinji was fully clothed and unarmed. Shinji wasted no words and sped across the short gap between them to swing his sword down in a blurred diagonal arc that should have cleaved the angel from shoulder to hip. The sword was stopped cold by an AT Field close by the neck of the angel, the ring of steel quite loud in the cavernous shaft. Shinji's expression curled up to one of disgust and revulsion as he drew back and swung forward again, this time expanding his own AT Field at the same time. His gray haired, red- eyed advisary easily ducked under the blade.  
  
"Is this all the mighty Ikari can do to me? I might have had better luck challenging Asuka or Toji to such a fight." Tabris taunted Shinji as he pulled back from the immobile angel.  
  
"You have the courage to try and slay me as I sleep, and to kill my friends with your vaunted AT Field but not to face me!?"  
  
"Oh...your friends? Yes well, Lillim will always be weaker than me and my breathern. And to you, you met that one poor boy didn't you...what was his name? Aida?" A sudden flash of silver and a clang of steel gave Tabris his answer. "Do you know who killed him?"  
  
"Shut up! For all I know it was-YOU!" Shinji grunted as he swung again at the angel, and again failing. "Why can't I get through?" He wondered.  
  
"No, no I don't have time to kill little creatures. But I know who does...your father, Gendo Ikari."  
  
Shinji brought his sword close by his side and stared open mouthed at the angel, both of them continuing to descend.  
  
"Oh, yes...quite the loving father there. Ordered the death of your friend Aida...cold blooded murder too, and the best part....second best part is, he didn't even need to order the execution! Two others from Seele, Gendo's masters, had already ordered it! But he just didn't contribute, he actually twisted the knife! Although you would never learn who he sent to do the dirty work...but I did learn."  
  
"SHUT UP!!" Shinji shouted loudly, glancing down to see the end of the shaft close at hand.  
  
"He sent one of your 'other' friends to do it...he sent one of your first and one of your best friends to kill him," Tabris leaned in closer and smiled evily at Shinji. "He sent Rei."  
  
"..No, no, she would-"  
  
"She did. Why not ask her yourself?" Tabris pointed down to the growing Evangelion nearing the exit shaft, carrining a giant, two-pronged spear in her left hand. "Why serve these infidels when you already are something so much more? Join with me Shinji, and clense this world of the evil it has spawned. Clense it of your father's evil!"  
  
At those last words, Shinji: who had been clenching one of his hands to his face while the other gripped tightly to his sword, opened his eyes and raised the sword until the bladetip was leveled horizontally at the angel's face.  
  
"If I'm so great and powerful, why should I have to join with you to kill my father?"  
  
Tabris closed his mouth as they floated down the last few meters and landed gently on the ground. Eva Unit 00 edged in closer to the two but stopped nearly fifty meters away.  
  
"Too bad. Now I must finish my job. If you will excuse me for a moment..." Tabris closed his eyes and let his own wings sprout from his back. The wings, unlike the other three angels Shinji had already encountered, were not coal black. These instead were a downy light gray, and far smaller than even his own. As he stood pondering these changes Tabris smiled and turned to face the Eva.  
  
"Filth, Unholy garbage. DIIIIIEEEEEEE!!"  
  
With a sudden burst of speed that kicked up flurries of what appeared to be snow the angel sped forward fast enough to leave a trail of afterimages behind him for a long second or two, his small wings somehow propelling him faster than Shinji could even comprehend...straight for Rei.  
  
"REI! EVASIVE-" Was all that came in over the comm lines from Misato before Rei felt an impact on her left arm. Glancing down with her optical lense she saw a winged Karou with his arm up to the elbow shoved deep into the armor casing. Klaxons blared around her as diagnostic screens reported contamination spreading through the arm and heading for the central brain cavity. Suddenly the arm flexed and the Lance of Longinus reformed into a massive sword of titanic proportinons. The contamination was now spreading to her chest and legs and head as shooting pain raced through the nerual feeds and into her body. Her back arced as the pain narrowed her vision and spasmed her body against the hard surfaces of the entry plug seat. Over the lines she dimly heard Misato shouting something about ejecting from the Eva, and for a moment she considered that. Then the Eva started walking forward, towords Shinji with the lance-sword leading.  
  
"Ikari...it will kill Ikari...I cannot a-llow that." She turned in her seat and activated a red-marked panel, exposing the self-destruct lever hidden away there.  
  
High above, Gendo noted Rei activating the hidden panel and his eyes widened in suprise at her bold move. He was tempted to override the attempt but found that Fuyutski was slightly shaking his head and gesturing to a readout of data flowing from failed attempts to force eject Rei. All the links were cut off, even the mighty leader of NERV could not interfere.  
  
"There can always be another..." He mused quietly.  
  
Shinji backed away from the Eva as it advanced for him, Karou withdrawing his arm from it as it advanced.  
  
"Yes my pet, destroy this one, and then yourself afterwards. I hate to use such a filty device but I do have a mission to do. Goodbye Ikari! I hope to see you next time I condemn souls to Hell."  
  
Before Shinji could reply something unusual happened. The Eva stopped its advance and started to exude light. Then the light coalesced around the Eva and flared. Shinji rapidly raised his AT Field around the explosion and directed it up. He held it that way for a few meager seconds and then as he tired relaxed it around himself, shielding him from the devestating self- destructing Eva. Even with the field in place Shinji was knocked several dozen meters away from where he landed, ending up rolling and tumbling through the false snow and ending up against a sprire of rock that jutted several meters into the air before it sheared off at the tip. In the command bridge it was complete chaos as the destructive energy raced up through the headquarters and then out it, completely coring the entire facility and exposing its innards from top to bottom. Asuka, Toji, and Hikari managed to stumble onto the bridge as the explosion waned and the crew returned to watching the holoscreens. Asuka leaned up on a console near Misato and asked her a question. "Shinji, is he?"  
  
"Can't tell...Maya?"  
  
"I'm getting two AT Fields being generated down there, but there both very weak..."  
  
Misato grimly smiled and turned back to Asuka. "I'll take that as my yes."  
  
Asuka moved up next to her and gave Misato a hug, praying and hoping for the best.  
  
Shinji blinked his eyes and started to stand when he noticed a gray blur heading for him. Reacting instinctivly he rolled to the right and so was only hit in the side by Tabris. The force of the impact still sent the two of them flying through the wrecked spire of rock and slamming into the next one as it crumble behind them. Shinji crinkled his nose with disgust as he saw his opponents charred skin and burnt hair, the entire left of his body having been caught in the explosions force.  
  
"Still...alive...Ikari..." Tabris panted out, having nearly been exhausted in keeping himself alive within the explosion. "Now...your turn..." Tabris reached out behind him and panted heavily as he used his diminished AT Field to lift the snow supporting the Lance of Longinus on the ground. Slowly the whole collabaration drew near and dropped down to within his reach.  
  
"Now...with the instrument...of an angels...destruction....I will kill....you!" He screamed in Shinji's face, his eyes wide and maniacle with rage. The lance shifted and grew smaller and narrower, reforming itself into a smaller version of the sword Unit 00 had carried. Shinji tried to push the angel off of him but couldn't, his own breath raspy and wet, and a sudden pain shooting through his chest near his lungs. The sword was lifted high above Shinji's breast, the point leading down and the blade gleaming sharply in the cold light of Terminal Dogma.  
  
"You...should have....joined....me....now DIIIIEEEEEE!!!" Tabris screamed out, echoing off of the ceiling as he drove the point forward into the center of Shinji's heart. Shinji jerked once, twice, and then fell still; the fires in his eyes dying out and leaving him with his normal deep-blue irises.  
  
"....Weak..." Tabris said as he stood and started walking away from the dead shell. Heading for Adam and the completion of his destiny.  
  
High above the battle, several stared silently as their best hope for survival died in a single stroke. Asuka crumpled to the ground in shock and stared numbly at the floor before her. Misato just cried. Toji wrapped his arm around his girlfriend and said a quick prayer that he would see her and Kensuke in heaven after he died.  
  
Third Impact occured.  
  
A long strech of beach nearby the ruins of a great city. The city once known as Tokyo-3, the vanguard against the angels attacking the Earth in an attempt to destroy humanity. They had succeeded. Shinji woke to the sound of surf crashing on beach and quickly sat up and glanced around. What he found was a sleeping Asuka Langley Sohryu nearby him, as beautiful as the day he saw her on the aircraft carrier bringing her into his life. He knew what had happened, and he had an inkling in his mind as to what they would be and find in this clensed world. But he didn't mind, because he had someone to share it with. For once in thirteen years he felt as if he was no longer truly lonely anymore. Asuka started to stir next to him.  
  
End.  
  
  
  
Phionex of the Fallen notes: I have finished this fic and I hope all who read it enjoy it as much as I have in writing it. Now I know that its strange in having the Third Impact actually occur by an angels hand, as it doesn't happen in the series. But this is a fanfic: in other words, CREATIVE LICENSE PEOPLE!!! Every story out there ends up either with the characters stopping the impact somehow, or commiting seppukku in creative ways. Depressing you may call my fic, but there is probably worse. Also, in some of the earlier reviews you have complaints about me not using the original names from the series. Well, I just wanted them to have different names, after all: unless you have the DVD's, or unless I was sleeping through parts of the series (I wasn't), they never mention the names of the angels!! Sorry if I offended you by the name change but I can't please everybody all at once and still write in my own style. If you enjoyed this fic I also encourage you to check out my other current postings: Wishfull thinking and its sequel: War of Ascention! Please check them out! Arigato! 


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